The Nativity, Gwen Raverat, 1916
I gathered the candy and the graham crackers from our local neighborhood corner store. My son whipped up a batch of frosting for the gingerbread houses, and when the kids finally sat down to do our annual gingerbread creations, I told them the good news of great joy that I would clean the kitchen and they didn’t have to do dinner dishes that night! I happily went into the kitchen to do the mighty work of putting the kitchen back in order for another day. Little did I know what was happening in the other room…
I overheard words here and there, and giggles of course, but when I came out to check on the kids, I had seemed to forget that their current year’s studies in Humanities might highly influence their creativity. No, there were no graham cracker cottages with lightly placed frosting in the form of icicles and carefully crafted rooftops with patterns of colored candy lights. No gummy bear to greet pilgrim gummy bears on their way to the Candycane Forest. No, this year, my kids were creating World War 2 battle scenes.
Gummy bears were stationed on battlements, others were galvanized for winter fighting amidst the powder sugar snow, and toothpicks were thrust through gummy bear soldiers. Thankfully, I did not have any red food coloring on hand!
The traveling is done, the presents have been opened, the food feasted upon. And, on the 6th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me our 18th wedding anniversary! Today, we celebrate New Year’s Eve and the conclusion of a very full and good year. My heart is full, snow is dusting the hills to the west, and we will eat steak and gnocchi tonight. As we are still in Christmastide, I want to share with you one of the most beautiful art pieces for Christmas that I have ever seen. This is our Christmastide art I will put up every year, henceforth, as we celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas.
As the pages of this year close, as the light continues to grow in the darkness of winter’s beginnings, and as a new year unfolds with beautiful possibilities, may your hope be in Jesus, your anchor in His Word, and your peace be secure as you rest in union with Christ. And may you remember, no matter what this year holds, that still the light grows…